The platform for fusor.net has not been updated for the last 3 or so versions so it was time. I never look forward to these updates because it is a total pain in the rear and many things can go wrong.

I did my usual back ups and started the "simple" process of replacing files and allowing the new phpBB3 software to self install. Of course some coder somewhere thinks it is a straight forward update. Maybe for the coder that wrote the script but IT SUCKS for the rest of us that do not know the idiosyncrasies of the update. For one, everything disappears for nearly an hour then something else reappears but it is not the same. It is not only not the same but it is not even remotely connected to our past database.

Well that is easy, just point the past database. That would be great but it changed a key element of the credentials needed to do that so I was stuck. On top of that, the restore panel was gone so I could not even revert the website back to the former operating version while I sorted out the problems with the upgrade. I even went so far as to repopulate the files that I saved to their original positions but the update had changed other aspects that made going back impossible. Impossible by restore or recover and impossible by undeleting the deleted files (that I had saved). So much for contingency planning.

Paul was also on the phone today with the hosting company and they wanted $$$ to look at it. Not a huge sum of money but not trivial either especially to a privately run site like ours. So I plodded on and found a workaround for the credential and here we are.

Here we are with all kind of changes, most of which I have no idea at the moment what they are or how to rectify them. The tools that I used in the last version are now gone just like they were in the version before that. So please be patient while I work on resolving the issues that some of you are pointing out.

The good news is the site is up and running again. I am ecstatic for that as it has been a long day and night to get us back to this point.

Now for my rant. Technology is NOT making our lives better. Even with a simple site such as this, we all have to relearn how things work and where they are. I am tired of doing this on my computer operating systems, with applications, with smart phones, with smart TVs, with car menus, with refrigerators, with just about everything around us. I have learned more programing languages and systems than I care to. If it ain't broken and it is working well, LEAVE IT ALONE! Make an invisible patch to fix any bugs or security issues or leave it be.

With all of that said, I will work to try to resolve all of the issues that are being pointed out and connect some more dots that need to be connected for the database/site to operate property. Thanks for your patience.

Frank, You have done a great piece of work here, in spite of the update trying to make it a better site by killing familiar tools and techniques we had grown use to.

You are right about coders....They are often lost in their own space and are constantly overcome by the "feature creature", allowing it to claw at them to "make it better". For the user, it just makes it more complicated and destroys all familiarity with what was.

I have coded and am still working with the Arduino and with each iteration of my GM software, I see how to make it better. The first pass, back in 2014, just placed the total counts on one line and Counts per min on the second line of the display. In 2015, I added a mode button and can have the counter now display the dose rate and total dose so far accumulated by pressing the mode button. Another press of the mode button and it will do a 10 minute background check. I thought I was done, but the feature creature attacked again. I have thoughtfully added to the far right corner of the display the current battery voltage readout. (Nice to know you are getting low on juice). However, this appears to be it for modifying my software. This is not a continued grand complication as this application is straight forward with only an on-off switch, a mode button and a reset button.

Program tree branching off machines that have only 5 buttons can give a horrid 5 factorial path of branches.

I am convinced the world will end when someone tries to update or load some new software in a highly intertwined complex control system which will bring down 50 different key conveniences so many of us have grown use to and bring about irreversable civil and planet wide unrest.

We are so bound up in interlinked, complex technologies that we are sitting on a razor's edge so fine that a major collapse or interruption will domino its way by ripple effect to do a great deal of damage.

Just for a moment, imagine if all cell phone and smart phone service disappeared, world wide, for 6 weeks and all elelectricity in homes went away for 3 weeks.

For many, technology would have, effectively, isolated them in a manner that is absolutely unacceptable.

Richard Hull

Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
Retired now...Doing only what I want and not what I should...every day is a saturday.

Yeah, looks like the update broke the old "look and feel" of the site. The old template was probably not compatible with this version, the site now looks like the "stock" phpbb template. But I was able to find where "New posts" is (Under "Quick Links).

The more reactive the materials, the more spectacular the failures.
The testing isn't over until the prototype is destroyed.

I'm seeing something different. It appears to have just changed, as it did not look like this an hour or so ago. I've tried 2 different browsers, on 2 different computers with the same results. This is what I see, with the forum topics below it:

None of those links work either. They all point to file:///Users/frank/Desktop/

Yea, this phpBB3 is getting to be really old news. Any change that I make takes 1 hour to a day to update in the system changes. I do not even know why it is displaying as it is as the file I modified was renamed and now put back into original position. NOTHING has changed. It is SO frustrating to not be able to see the results for up to a day. Going to have lunch now.

Yes, I have to constantly scroll down to see whatever message I click on. Not very much fun.

Richard Hull

Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
Retired now...Doing only what I want and not what I should...every day is a saturday.